Loom governor



May 31, 1938. N. A. BATCHELDER LOOM GOVERNOR Filed July 19, 19 7 12710823303 N92608: c/Z. Baifcizeider,

Patented May 31, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- 3 Claims.

My present invention relates to the art of weaving, more particularly on fly shuttle looms employing shuttle-picking'mechanism, and aims to regulate,'equalize, increase the speed and otherwise improve the operation of looms in general.

In the accompanying drawing, illustrating by' way of example one embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a view looking at one side of a loom, the right hand side inthis instance, the front or take-up end being at the left in said figure and the rear or let-off 'end at the right;

Fig. 2 is an elevation of a governor unit or as-- sembly in accordance with the invention and as shown in Fig. 1, looking toward the front of the loom, that is, from right to left in said figu're: and Fig. 3 is a section centrally of the mechanism of Fig. 2, in the plane of the shaft.

. Referring more particularly to the drawing, I have in Fig. 1 represented only such main parts of a loom as are adequate for the purposes of the. present disclosure, selecting for the sake of illustration a plain loom, such for example as a Drap er model E? and which may be of the automatic replenishing or other type. As will be apparent from the following description the advantages of the invention are obtainable in the combination anduse of the latter 'upon most, if not all, looms;

and especially those of the higher speedtype, or

'in conjunction with obtaining a maximum of operating efficiency for any given loom.

In Fig. 1, one side frame, herein that at the right facing the front of the loom, is indicated at 5; see also Fig. 2. The main or crank shaft is seen at 6 and the cam shaft at I. At the loom front,

at the left in Fig. 1, is usual breast beam 8, while at the rear are the bearings -9 for the warp beam.

The loom side or end illustrated is in this instance that opposite the power-receiving end, the

drive mechanism and other associated parts accordingly not being seen in Fig. 1. Such drive mechanism may be of the fast and loose pulley type, or motor driven, generally through a friction clutch, or' otherwise, the present invention being equally applicable with anyxform of drive for the loom.

The lay and right-end shuttle box are represented at [0 and the reed at l I, the lay being supported for swinging movement by the usual swords, oneof .which is seen at l2 and its pivotal mounting at l3.- The lay is operated by the crankshaft 6,-one connectingdcrank arm being indicated at It. As previously stated, the loom may be equipped for automatic replenishing, or

otherwise, and may be of the bobbin changing or shuttle changing type. In Fig. 1 I have represented somewhat diagrammatically, a battery l5 of fresh bobbins having the usual hammer l6 and dagger [1 for cooperation withva bunter l8 on the lay. Actuation of said parts, to efiect re-. 5

' plenishment, may be controlled by suitable feeler mechanism (not shown) operating to effect a call for a' new weft supply either upon depletion or upon exhaustion or substantial exhaustion of the previous supply in an active shuttle. In addition 10 the loom is provided with harnesses and shedding mechanism, let-off and take-up means and such other equipment as may be appropriate to the particular weaving job.

The parts above referred to may be of any 16 known or preferred construction, the present invention residing in the combination therewith, or with any loom, of regulatory means of which I will now describe one example selected for illustrative purposes. and in such means per se 20 as adapted for use upon a loom.

' As best seen in Figs. 2 and 3, the crank shaft 6 is extended outwardly beyond the loom side frame 5. Upon this extension or'end portion of the crank shaft there is mounted, loose upon the 25 "shaft, a relatively large, heavy rotatable inertia element or governor illustrated in the form of a wheel- 20. Atone face of this governor wheel, herein the inner face, a thrust collar 2| is pinned or otherwise fixed on the shaft, holding the 30 wheel against inward movement... 'At the other face of the wheel, the outer face in the illustrated example, is an integral or other hub 22 forming one element of an automatic clutch means. Said hub has at its outer face a 35 circumferential series of rather shallow, rounded or scalloped teeth 23 adapted to mesh with simi lar teeth 24 on the other main element 25 of the clutch mechan'ism, said element being fixed for rotation with the shaft 6 but being slidable to- 40 ward and from the element 22, 23 which is fixed for rotation with the wheel 20. Said slidable element 25 is in the form of a collar or sleeve surrounding the shaft 6 and movable lengthwise of it. It is angularlyefixed relative to the shaft, for 45 rotary movement with it, as by means of an internal keyway slidably receiving a key 26 set-in a way 21 in the shaft 6 see Fig. 3. Said clutch element.25 is slidably received on the reduced inner end 28 of an adjustable sleeve 29 having an outer 50 collar or shoulder portion 30.' This sleeve 29 is fixed on the shaft, adjustably, as by one or more set screws 3|. Surrounding the intermediate portion of the sleeve 28 is a compression spring 32 bearing between the outer shouldered portion 30 55 of the sleeve and the slidable element 25 and urging the latter into engagement with the clutch element 22, 23 of the governor or fly wheel 20.

The spring tension may be regulated by adjustably varying the position of the fixed sleeve 29 lengthwise the shaft.

The operation of the automatic governo mechanism will readily be understood from' the foregoing description, in connection with the drawing. Assuming the loom to be at rest, power is applied tr start it in whatever manner it-is supplied. As the loom .starts up, the inertia of the governor [wheel causes it to lag behind the shaft 6, as permitted by reason of the scalloped or cam-like teeth of the-clutch elements, the slidable element being forced outwardly against the pressure of its spring as the sets .of teeth 24 and-23 are camme'd or ride past each other. During a few initial picks of the loom, perhaps half a dozen or more, the speed of the wheel 20 gradually builds up, under the effort of the spring 32 to interengage the clutch elemerits, until it attains that .of the shaft 6, when both parts continue to rotate as a unit. In the stopping of the loom for any cause, the reverse action takes place. The momentum of the goverv nor wheel 20 causes it to overrun the shaft,. the clutch elements automatically letting go and allowing the shaft to' come to rest while the wheel continues to revolve, camming the slidable.

clutch element outwardly against its spring and" no additional load is placed upon the parts. And conversely, when the loom is stopped, whether by the operator or automatically in response to some failure or improper loom action, such as breakage the governor wheel to continue to revolve until its momentum is spent, while the loom parts come quickly to rest in the usual manner. The

automatic stopping of a loom, particularly that effected-by the protector motion, for protecting the warp yarn from being broken by the lay and shuttle in case the latter for any reason remains in the shed when the lay moves forward to beat up the filling, is a rather violent action, entailing great strain on the loom parts.

It is accordingly important that such strain produced by the stopping'or so-called knocking off of the loom should not in any event be increased. -Were it not for the automatic release of the relatively heavy inertia or govemcr element of my invention there would inevitably be an undesirable and impracticable increase in the violence of the knocking 01f action. This will be appreciated from the fact that the protector motion above referred to acts to present an immovable part in the path of the lay, whereby the latter is stopped instantaneously and positively by coming into collision with the immovable part, such as a lever associated with the shorter handles of the loom and struck by a dagger on the lay and acting to stop and hold the lay far enough away from the fell of the cloth so that it will not be able to break the warp ends by driving the shuttle against them. Blocks of rubber or the like generally are provided to cushion the blow of the daggers but nevertheless the abrupt stopping of the lay is a comparativelyviolent action, in principle a collision of a powerdriven moving part with a fixed part, and anything tending to increase the violence of this action would be objectionable. I

The regulatory or governing means of my invention produces a truly remarkable stabilizing,

evening and easing eifect on all rapid actions of I the loom, and throughout the entire operating;

cycle. It has long been recognized that the main actions of a fiy-shuttle loom, especially the reciprocatory motions of picking-and of beating up, are not ideal mechanically; witness the efforts to develop circular looms. Inaccordance with my invention the violence of the motions referred,

to is relieved to a marked, important extent, and

the action in all phases of the operating cycle is in effect steadied and eased, with the additional result that materially higher operating spee may be utilized for any given loom.

The following considerations, among various others, will demonstrate the beneficial effects of the means of my invention. If an ordinary loonj;,,"

unbalanced, without my governor mechanism, is

speeded up substantially, by the application-of more power, the'tendency of theover-powered picking action is to knock the filling off the bobbin in the shuttle, an effect known as slufling off." But with the'application of my governor the power applied to the picker stick to drive the period referred to, weaving first grade cloth in every way comparable to the product of that loom at its heretofore top speed of picks per minute.

The resultant saving in production costs on;

looms equipped in accordance with my invention involves not only a very substantial direct labor saving, but the improved operation of the loom as a whole effects a marked saving in the general overhead charges against a loom, including'such items as maintenance, depreciation, indireet'labor and others, which further saving itself may amount to twenty percent or more of the overhead cost per yard of the woven product.

Striking proof of the evening and easing effect of the balanced power on the picking action, in the practice of my invention, is also found in the fact that if a usual loom, such as above referred to, is abnormally speeded up by theniere addition of power, great difliculty will be experienced in preventing the shuttle from re-bounding out of the shuttle box and causing the loom-to knock 01f by operation of the protector motion. Even a slight addition of power in the shuttle boxing is liable to throw the shuttle entirely out of the loom, while a slight: reduction in the power of the boxing action is apt to result in the shuttle not being driven the whole length of the lay and pletely obviated, the pick is put in easily, and the loom action as a whole is more nearly comparable to that at an ordinary speed of not materially above 150 picks per minute.

Further important evidence of the stabilizing and power-balancing or evening effect of my device is had in the fact that breakage of warp ends, at the high speed of 200 picks per minute is decreased, rather than otherwise, as compared with that generally experienced at the previous average top speeds at 150 picks per minute. This is evidently due to an'easying of the harness action especially, as well as the similar steadying,

and smoothing eifect on all other rapid actions of the loom. This decrease in warp end breakage has been demonstrated by actual test under working conditions in a weave room, continued over a period of weeks. The foregoing improved results have been obtained-on'a forty inch loom driven by an electric motor h. pf) through a friction clutch, .as well as upon looms having a belt drive.

In a further demonstration of the beneficial effects of the power-controlling means of the invention a used 40' loom with a light frame was rebuilt to weave an 80" cloth, by inserting an extra central section. Ordinarily this light loom would not stand such an augmented shuttlethrow, and could not satisfactorily pick the shuttle across the distance necessary for an 80" warp. But in combination with the governor means of my invention the widened light-weight loom performed in a highly acceptable manner.

It will be understood that the weight of the governor wheel andthe loading of the clutch spring are selected and proportioned to the particular loom and to the result desired, whether that of, increased operating speed for a given I loom, or an increased width of warp as made pos- 'sible by'the application of greater power under the stabilizing and constant speed effects of the regulating device, or simply an easing and balancing of the loom action, so as to decrease warp and breakage andweave more perfect cloth on the particular loom, irrespective of speed increase. Thus, for example", with the slower running, wide. loomsthe weight of thewheel and the springtension for the clutch are made greater than for narrower higher speedv looms. In any instance the result is to stabilize the mainmovements of the loom, including that of the lay, the picking action, and the shedding or harness action, affording a constant speed and great regularity throughout the whole operating cycle.

Likewise it will be understood that other constructions ofirutomatic engaging and releasing means for the govemor' wheel may be employed,

either positive or of the friction type, such as a disc or plate friction clutch, arranged to afford the automatic operation as herein described. Such constructions, however, involve the use of additional parts and mechanism, whereas the extremely simple embodiment as herein illustrated has proven highly eflicient and is eminently suited for most if not all 100111 installations.

My invention is not limitedto the particular embodiment thereof as herein illustrated and described, its scope being set out in the following claims:

I claim: 1. In an organized loom, in comblnatioma lay,

picking means, shedding mechanism, a drive shaft for the loom, power-applying means for the shaft, an inertia governor wheel looselyreceived on the shaft and separate from the powerapplying means, and automatically engaging and releasing connections between the wheel and the shaft including oppositely disposed hub-like members surrounding the shaft, each having a concentric series of arcuate teeth, one of said members fixed for rotation with the wheel and the other fixed for rotation with the shaft, said members being relatively movable axially away from each other by a mutual camming action to effect said automatic release of the wheel and shaft, and spring means opposing said relative movement of said members and urging them toward wheel and shaft engaging position of their teeth.

2. In an organized loom, in combination, a lay, pickingmeans, shedding mechanism, an operating shaft element for the loom, power-applying means for the shaft element, a rotary inertia element loosely mounted on the shaft element and separate from the power-applying means, operating connections between said elements including a plurality of projections fixed for rotation with one element and a like number of receiving formations fixed for rotation with the other element, said projections and receiving formations said projections and receiving formations being shaped and arranged for self-camming movement out fromvdriving relation and against said spring means, to allow relative rotation of said inertia and shaft elements in stopping and in starting of the loom.

3. In an organized loom, in combination, a lay, picking means, shedding mechanism, a drive shaft for the loom, power-applying means for the shaft, aninertia governor wheel loosely received on the shaft and separate from the power-applying means, and readily self-releasable connections operatively interposed between the shaft and the wheel, said connections comprising opposed concentric series of yieldably interengageable projection and indentation formations including a formation series fixed for rotation with the shaft and a formation series fixed for rotation with the wheel, said connections being relatively movable between driving and releasing positions, and spring means automatically controlling said connections, urging them to driving position for rotation of the wheel and shaft together while the loom is running, and permitting them to yield relatively to move themselves to releasing posiangularly-relative to the wheel and impart iricreasing momentum to the latter during an initial or starting period at the end of which the wheel attains loom shaft speed, in starting the loom.

NELSON A. BATCHELDER. 

